Greetings!

The main purpose of this website is to support Android indie game developers with tutorials, reviews and promotion of their games. The main difficulty for the developers is not to make the game, but to get exposure. To get it out there. If you find anything useful here, please spread the word. Like my page on Facebook, follow me on Google+ or Twitter. Thank you!

Friday, 7 November 2014

Sometimes I get a really simple game or a remake of a notoriously know game for review. It can turn up to be a great piece and therefore I am not quick to judge. In this case, it is a newest addition to the connect three genre with a classic diamond visuals.

Jewels Combo from Micri-M is exactly what is seems to be. If' you have ever played any of the similar games before, you will immediately know what to do.

Well, it's not that hard to be honest. Simply tap areas where more than three diamonds of the same shape and color line up to remove them from the game. New diamonds will fall from the top to fill the gaps. Get as many points as you can in a short time limit.

So what does this game bring new to the genre? It seems that there is nothing. Apart from the gems there are a few power tiles that can break a whole line or a cross and add time, but that's it. It goes back to basics.

The game visuals are sort of outdated as well. Players used to Candy Crush Saga will certainly feels like this game is a downgrade. There are the necessary sounds and a nice tune playing in the background.

Summary

Jewels combo is a remake of a classic game that unfortunately doesn't bring anything new to captivate the players.

Friday, 31 October 2014

Recently, Volterock released a second part of the Vocal Hazard Pack. It contains many high quality original vocals such as screams and shouts and can prove very useful to gamedevs. A the license? CC-BY!.

Wednesday, 8 October 2014

What sounds like a title of a B-movie is actually a nice little MMO game from Umz Games. Umz specializes in multiplayer and such games can be a lot of fun given you get somebody to play with. Because the main focus of the game is on skirmishes between ant colonies, Killer Ant Empire stands and falls on the number of people playing the game.

The single player part is quite simple. Grow your colony by foraging food and killing prey. Some prey is docile and easy to get rid of, some fight back.

There are many different types of food, but they work pretty much the same. After your scouts automatically discover food, send a number of foragers to the food source. The more foragers you have, the faster you can gather the food. There's also a limit of foragers on a single food item.

Friday, 3 October 2014

I have written this tutorial style book for AndEngine beginners and it was published last month. Packt has given me 6 copies for a giveaway contest. The contest ended on 12th October.

All you have to do is fill in your email in the contest form. You can also post about entering the contest on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or your website. In the post, tell me why do you want this book and include this link: http://bit.ly/1udi1vz. It leads to the book page on Packt website. Don't forget to change the visibility of the post to public so I can actually see it.Please go to the form and submit all required information. The contest will run from 4th October until the end of 12th October. Good luck! Any questions? Just use the comments below!

Monday, 15 September 2014

My book about AndEngine has finally been published. If you are interested in getting a copy, you can get one at Packt website or Amazon. The book is really basic. It teaches everything from downloading AndEngine to publishing the game. It covers most of the basic aspects of AndEngine and it does that by slowly developing a doodle-jump style game. The game is available in Google Play store.

While reading the book, you will learn a bit about game design, how to design entities and also which software development pattern to use to make the code more readable. Moving sprites, getting input from user, using physics and playing sounds and music; this all is described as well.

Saturday, 23 August 2014

Tiny Helicopter by Micri-M is a simple game that can be categorized as tap-to-fly horizontal scroller. It is very small and starts very fast without any splash screens or menu screens. Right in to the game as you would expect from a simple game like this.

The game itself probably doesn't need any further explanations. But just in case it's the first time you've ever played tap-to-fly game, the rules are very simple. You pilot a tiny helicopter through a horizontally scrolling level full of stalactites and stalagmites. The helicopter flies right on its own and it's up to you to control the vertical movement. You have to tap the screen to propel it upwards, and it falls downwards thanks to gravity. Crashing in to the pillars, floor or ceiling means game over.

Friday, 22 August 2014

I have finished the last chapter of my book and half of the chapters are finalized by the publisher. Right now the technical editor is making sure the book looks good and checks for the last mistakes that has been left in the remaining chapters.

It's been a great journey and I am looking forward to holding the book in my hands. According to the contract, I can use a little piece of the material in the book here on this website, so I am going to take a piece of code and post a short tutorial. If you are interested in seeing the piece, let me know! (comments, facebook, twitter, g+).

Wednesday, 16 July 2014

Up 'n' Down by CheersBros looks like an entertaining arcade with neat graphics, funky music and simple fun idea. The added mutliplayer on single device is definitely a plus. So let's see how this one plays...

The game starts with an advertisement, which probably immediately deters some of the potential players and it's a shame, because the game is not bad. Unfortunately at least on my phone the ad takes some time to load. First it interrupts the music and shows a black screen for just about enough time that it almost looks like the game hangs at the beginning.